Not to nitpick, but Microsoft looking wrong at you is more like the Eye of Sauron looking wrong at you.
Just pointing to the gigantic amount of dark patterns on Microsoft products, especially Windows.
So you agree pitchforks should be out both for Apple and Microsoft.
Count me in.
Most of the complaints about Apple seem to have come from devs. And in contrast, Microsoft [in]famously loves developers (Balmer on stage...)
Apple sucks dealing with anything that doesn't have their name on it. External monitors have terrible support because Apple refuses to implement a specific protocol making that nice, like everyone else does. You basically have to use Apple's monitors or their overpriced officially supported LG monitors they sell in the Apple Store if you want an integrated monitor experience. Several other issues with Apple exist with peripherals. I have to make special router settings in my home because my partner's work Macbook can't switch between the mesh network. My partner also had to get IT to give her admin access so that she could rename iTunes because it was the only reliable way to keep iTunes from opening every time her non-Apple Bluetooth headphones connected. Search about what it takes to rename an app like iTunes. It is literally insane.
An interesting observation is that users of Apple products rarely go out of their way to insult others based on their choice of hardware / OS, while users of Android (and Windows & Linux to a lesser extent) seem to get quite needlessly enraged at the Apple users. No one is forcing Apple products on you guys, chill out.
As someone who uses iOS, Android, Windows, Linux, Mac, and FreeBSD on a daily basis, I believe all of them have their pros and cons.
On topic: Apple used to quite strongly prefer (and tell) developers to use web apps when appropriate instead of a native app. As someone that has helped many companies develop apps - the biggest complaint about not having a native app is that they won't be listed in the App Stores without one.
Many of the apps I've helped develop could be web apps, but, companies really want to see their app in the App Stores.
Microsoft just wants to dominate. They don't care if the UX is garbage, as long as the user doesn't have a choice.
It's kind of a cult in other words, personally I'm not part of it and not afraid of blasphemy when I see stuff broken.
Only the hottest and coolest allowed in? Let me share the good news with the thousands of developers making Bible apps and Clash of Clans clones.
What if we determine that the "coolness" motivation is a scapegoat for anticompetitive behavior?
AT&T could have argued the same thing but I'm not sure if the coolness of their infrastructure would have saved them from a breakup.
The wind is changing.
If somebody dared to write a comment on HN criticizing Apple in the 10s, downvotes rained down on that comment. HN's policy is to downvote to express disagreement, among the other things.
That's not been the case anymore since a few years. This very thread would have been nearly impossible 10 years ago, maybe 5 years ago too.
